Tokyo, City of Lights

Everywhere we turned in Tokyo felt otherworldly. It was perhaps the Asia of our television stereotypes, at least when it came to LED to person ratio (10,000 LED lights to 1 person). Ironically, I don't have a single picture capturing the oxymoronic horrific splendour of this phenomena.

In Shinjuku we were haunted by tall buildings that went up, up, up in a way that put even New York City to shame. And a world existed in every floor of every building--'sleep booths', karaoke booths, multi-story arcades, restaurants, seedy clubs. Our hotel was a short walk from the Robot Restaurant, featured on Anthony Bourdain's show, Parts Unknown. It was an epileptic's nightmare.

In Shibuya we paused for brief repose at the world's busiest Starbucks in front of the world's busiest pedestrian crossing. Repose may be the wrong word in this context but watching the world briefly converge before separating into little universes was almost meditative.

And then we turned two streets down and we were ambling down a pedestrianised lane of markets. Cute ones. Quiet ones. With beer halls and flowers and trendy furniture.

Unfortunately, we made our way to Harajuku, the world of pierced, baby doll clothes wearing world after most of the shops had shut. As a consequence, we were witness to a very limited amount of punk fashion, if that's what you can call it.

My dad lived in Tokyo for a three-month stint back when I was at university so I had some context for all of this. But, much like living in China, I got the impression that tourists are unable to fathom the cultural complexities that have created the scene in front of our eyes. We get Tokyo on a superficial level but to understand Japanese culture must take some time. I appreciate this complexity and I know that every place must be like this to an extent. Tokyo seemed to exude it in spades; how wonderful to be more than meets the eye, to live or travel to a place and discover layer after layer after layer.

In my best Arnie voice: Tokyo, I'll be back.

Tokyo, City of Food

Saying my farewells to Hawaii would have been difficult had it not been for the fact that one eight-hour flight separated me from all things Japan and, perhaps more sentimentally (hard as I try not to be), to Paul. It'd been a cool six months since we'd seen each other at Christmas and as much as one might get used to not seeing someone else, I missed the hugs. And the bad puns.

Due to some flight finagling, Paul had already been in Tokyo for 24-hours so he was ready to greet me at the airport. He was jet lagged, I was jet lagged and we kind of collapsed inwardly in mutual exhaustion. Time differences and late night bus schedules didn't help and we stumbled our way back to our tiny box of a hotel room in the trendy Shinjuku district with a short stop at the local Family Mart for rice triangles and pot noodle.

In retrospect, this may have set the tone for our time in Tokyo. Instead of indulging our exhaustion we plunged forward into city adventures. Tokyo instantly became overwhelming. For two London to Shanghai city dwellers, we were not ready for this.

We loved bits of the city: the Fish Market, the politeness, the vending machines, the toilets, the people watching.

 

 We hated bits of the city: the underlying seedy sex industry, the constant overstimulation.

On our first full day, we accidentally overdosed on ramen and ruined our noodle proclivities for the rest of the trip. This is no exaggeration. Our first meal induced stomach pains and a coma-like stupor:

We recovered, learning no lessons because on day two, we ate so much sashimi we thought we'd poisoned ourselves. When in the world's freshest fish market...

By dinner time, we persevered and made our way to Harajuku and a fabulous DIY okonomiyaki restaurant. For those okonomiyaki virgins, that's a fancy word translated into 'how you like it grill', or a complex Japanese pancake made in two different styles: the Osaka style and the Hiroshima style. Choosing which version you like is akin to choosing which Manchester football club to support.

The most common ingredients are shredded yam, egg, shredded cabbage and some kind of meat/tofu. The ensuing product is a delight:

Japan's got the most Michelin stars in the world so we paid our respects to the city's (and country's) regional delights. Portions may be small but my goodness, the variety, the time, the patience put into preparation is admirable.